ARCHIVE Wits' End Turbo Test Mule #3- no cartwheeling allowed (7 Viewers)

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There is a flexible tube running from the two gear housings. I've never bothered taking this apart before but this time I did. It was no biggie. The tube is just flexible tubing and what I initially *thought* was an oil bath is actually just speedometer grease but honestly just felt like moly grease. I'm convinced its moly. The cable that runs inside is literally just a speedometer cable, albeit really short, but coated in a teflon sleeve. So I just cleaned it out completely and squirted in some new moly and assembled it all back together. Everything is just a simple slip fit.

The bottom of the lead screw is a nylon holder that literally just keeps the tip of the lead screw centered. It does nothing else. I gotta find his MUD but Chertok sent me some of these ends but 3D printed in carbon fiber filament. He was nice enough to send these along to me so i went ahead and installed them because I didn't see the harm in adding them. But, to be honest, I didn't see the benefit in it either. For as many of these that I've changed gears on I've never see this end piece broken or even cracked. But while I'm there, screw it :meh:

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After seeing the secondary gear housing and the remnants of the nylon gear, I decided to take apart the primary gear and motor itself to be able to inspect and thoroughly clean the steel gear and housing. Taking apart the housing meant cutting the nylon strap that is around the housing. One quick cut and then C.A. to glue it back after it was done.

The gear was once again a mess and the remnants was all over the housing and steel gear. One interesting thing is AISIN cuts little grooves into the motor's rotor to balance it. The magnets inside were perfectly clean. Zero residue. The brushes were pushed back in and the motor wqas reassembled after cleaning.

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Wits’ End metal gear replacement? Or would that chew something else up?
 
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Now something even more interesting...

Since I was forced to do my own seats I figured I'd do the one on a customer truck that needed it as well. Went thru all the same steps except his gear housing was setup with different components that my turbo truck. Not what I was expecting. One side had a nylon needle bearing and the other side had a different type of "rubber-like" material that had its composition altered also by the grease. It was like a firm jelly.

I was also able to figure out why HIS gear was stripped. Turns out his rail's roller sled was missing one of its ball bearings. This of course causes the rail to bind and then the gear gets munch. I just need to measure and order up some replacement ball bearings.

Now that everything is replaced and properly greased, all the seats are buuuuuuuuttery smooth.

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Now something even more interesting...

Since I was forced to do my own seats I figured I'd do the one on a customer truck that needed it as well. Went thru all the same steps except his gear housing was setup with different components that my turbo truck. Not what I was expecting. One side had a nylon needle bearing and the other side had a different type of "rubber-like" material that had its composition altered also by the grease. It was like a firm jelly.

I was also able to figure out why HIS gear was stripped. Turns out his rail's roller sled was missing one of its ball bearings. This of course causes the rail to bind and then the gear gets munch. I just need to measure and order up some replacement ball bearings.

Now that everything is replaced and properly greased, all the seats are buuuuuuuuttery smooth.

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Do I feel a "power seat rebuild kit" coming on?
 
No f***ing way in hell. Only an absolute idiot would replace with a metal gear :eyeroll:
Well, you know, the plastic only lasts 20 years…
 
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I wanted to tie up some loose ends and finally post the rest of the seat motor rebuild and some things I learned along the way...

Here was an issue found on this this seat:



Now to see where the amperage draw was:



Now that the motor was pinpointed, it was time to see how the rails operated:

 
There were MANY issues with this seat but one of its issues was the fact that the roller sled, that houses the 1/4" ball bearing a roller, was bent out of shape, missing a ball bearing, and was carving out a new path along the seat raill.

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All of the sleds were bent back into shape so that they will slide correctly without binding. The next issue was the rollers were badly galled. These are hardened steel which is ideal but the rails were messed with when the seat extensions were added and weren't installed correctly.

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The next issue was the slide rails themselves. They were beat to s***. They needed to be reworked by grinding down all of the high spots. Then they needed to be squared to each other, meaning the rails were pinched in or expanded to make them true and even all the way thru. These were wavy in all directions. And finally both rails were NOT perfectly parallel to each other and they MUST be. All fixed.

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Now that the rails were taken care of it was time to look at the seat motor. Yeah there was some gunk on the armature but that shouldn't cause any issues. It got a spray down of electronics cleaner. This is the motor that was having the amperage spike and then dying. Then when given power again to operate it would for only a split second...until it cooled down.

AHA! There is a thermal switch somewhere in the motor. But where? There are no electronics. Low and behold something stood out. Why was there a large copper "heat sink"? Why is there a "pad" between them? And why did it look like it was de-laminating? Son of a bitch! Its a thermal pad. Its designed to de-laminate when the motor overheats. Its a safety.

Not this motor is done for (replacement on its way) but wanted to test the theory that this was indeed a thermal "switch" pad layer. How to do that? Nothing a blob of bridging solder can't fix to test. Sure enough the motor worked fine after that. BUT AGAIN don't do this! This is a fire waiting to happen. Its just a proof of concept.

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I really don’t want to recreate the wheel on something that someone probably has sitting on the shelf somewhere just collecting dust.

Mounting a winch onto the turbo truck and looking for a winch plate that is better suited to the 80. The one here requires plenty of modification to get it right. Someone has got to have a winch cradle that sits ON TOP of the frame horns instead of bolts from below.
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Completely unplanned axle service on the turbo truck. Wanted to get dyno numbers pre and post meth injection. Did a quick check on the wheel bearings. One side super sloppy. Turns out the outer lock nut welded itself to the spindle. Had to remove the entire knuckle from behind. Cheater bar on the 54mm nut was not budging anything. Quick work with the Dremel and a mini cutting wheel and the lock nut was able to be peeled off. So annoying.
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Turns out the outer lock nut welded itself to the spindle. Had to remove the entire knuckle from behind. Cheater bar on the 54mm nut was not budging anything. Quick work with the Dremel and a mini cutting wheel and the lock nut was able to be peeled off.

That's amazing how did that happen?..... wait a minute...just how powerful is this turbo set up?!?! :bounce2::bounce2:
 
Finally did the write up on the hydraulic winch install on the turbo truck from last year. You can read about it here:
or here: Wits' End Hydraulic Winch Project - https://absolute-wits-end.com/wits-end-hydraulic-winch-project/

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crazy clean Joey / @NLXTACY - w/o rewinding, the 2 box tubes for a tow bar?

-or just multi-use ala’ Factor 55 receiver tow eyes?

That’s way clean, like shaved junk clean :p
 

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